We conceptualize mergers as one of several strategies for creating value and study merger performance by evaluating the performance of firms employing an acquisitive strategy. Relative to other firms, acquisitive firms are valued lower, innovate less, and exhibit lower employee and total factor...

Outside directors' monitoring effectiveness is curtailed by information asymmetry between boards and management. Connections between independent directors and non-CEO executives may overcome this challenge by facilitating information sharing between the connected parties. Such connections can...

We investigate an increasingly prevalent CEO succession strategy: recruiting CEOs from the board of directors (director-CEOs). Director-CEOs might be hired in a planned succession because they combine outsiders' new perspectives with insiders' firm-specific knowledge. Alternatively, directors...